Local legend has it that under Spanish rule pirates looted Huatulco, but that they didn’t succeed in stealing its beauty. The warm Pacific Ocean washes the shores of Huatulco’s 36 stunning beaches, extending across nine bays boasting warm waters and golden sands. The area was a flourishing commercial port and favorite haunt of pirates and British navigators such as Sir Thomas Cavendish in 1587 and Sir Francis Drake in 1578. A famous deed happened during the War of Independence in January 1832, when the Mexican Picaluga brothers betrayed the revolutionary General Vicente Guerrero on the coast of Huatulco and sent him to a firing squad on the “La Entrega” beach found in this area.

The government tourism development agency (Fonatur) began planning the area’s main resort in the 1980s and in 1988 the Bahias de Huatulco (bays of Huatulco) National Park was declared a protected nature reserve with a world-class tourism infrastructure of luxury hotels, nightclubs, discos, restaurants, and golf courses and a the little gem city of La Crucecita.